As the range of telephony-related service capabilities continues to increase, so to does the reliance thereupon. Concomitantly, there are also increased expectations in business and personal relations as to the timeliness of returning messages and/or and otherwise maintaining personal contact on an ongoing basis.
As can be appreciated, however, there are many situations in which access to telephony services is limited, thereby restricting an individual's capability for timely response. By way of primary example, telephone access is limited when a user is at a location remote from the user's primary telephony equipment. In such instances, the user may only have access to telephony services via the use of public telephones. Frequently, a user will not have the necessary currency to utilize a public telephone, particularly, for example, in the event long distance calling is desired.
To help address such situations, "smart cards" have been developed for gaining telephony service access from a public telephone. In short, a smart card is one that is adapted for insertion into certain public telephones, such telephones being capable of accessing encoded information carried on a microchip within the card. The encoded information allows the smart card holder, upon input of a personal identification number, to receive telephony services to the extent that encoded telephony credit units cover associated calling charges. Additional calling credit units may be purchased at smart card telephones via interface with a specific financial institution and telephony service provider.
Unfortunately, the potential use of smart cards is currently restricted by the fact that any given smart card-compatible telephone can only access one particular type of smart card (i.e., a smart card issued with the cooperative authorization of a single, specific financial institution and telephony service provider).